Predecessors of Cleopatra

by Leigh North

Tutors, or “nurses,” as they were called, were appointed for the royal children, and possibly the queen’s secretary, Kenun, may have held this position. Record is made of a certain Shap-siska-fankhu, who was governor of the “House of the Royal Children,” in the Fifth Dynasty. Shafra or Khafra was thought to be son-in-law to Khufu and his wife; Meri-ankh-s, or Meri-s-ankh, whose tomb is at Sakkarah, was a priestess of the god Thoth. She was high in confidence and favor, and bore at least two sons. Her husband, or another son of Khufu, was high priest at Heliopolis.

Mertytefs was evidently a lady of great vigor, capacity and attraction, for two reigns did not exhaust her powers, and under the succeeding king, Kafra or Chafra, probably son-in-law or nephew, and builder of the second pyramid of Gizeh, she still in a measure held sway. The name signified “beloved of her father,” but she was evidently beloved of fortune also, for her sun sinks in splendor as the “Administrator of the Great Hall of the Palace,” where she had probably innumerable slaves to oversee and do her bidding, “Mistress of the Royal Wardrobe” and “Superintendent of the Chamber of Wigs and Head-dresses”—three important offices. Yet are women of forty on the Nile said to be as old as those of sixty in Europe. Not this lady surely, else were her brilliant career briefly run. To account for this singular history one commentator allows her a hundred and six years, another a hundred and thirty. A lady’s age is always a mystery. Perhaps she never told it, but “let concealment, like a worm in the bud, feed on her damask cheek,” and after these lapses of centuries it may be we shall never be set right on this point.

The statue of King Chefren, with his novel head-dress, serene expression, and paucity of underwear, is familiar, but the upper class figures were always more conventional, the lower more realistic. A new king meant usually a new city, a new palace, and a new tomb, and architecture flourished in these distant periods.

The duties of the Queen Dowager were doubtless arduous. “Administrator of the Great Hall” probably included the direction and control of a large retinue of servants and the preparations for feast and audiences. “Mistress of the Royal Wardrobe” was perhaps a less onerous position, owing to the brevity of the then fashionable costume. At some periods men wore but two garments, women but one—a sort of narrow chemise of fine linen, through which the limbs could be plainly seen, with or without a strap over the shoulders. Another costume was a light skirt with long shoulder straps and bound by a girdle, the ends falling in front. Over this usually a full skirt of fine linen, with sleeves below the elbows and broad skirt falling to the ground.

Both men and women adorned themselves with necklaces and bracelets, and used stibium to darken under the eyelids—while the nails, hands and feet were stained with henna, which gave them an orange tint. Occasionally, also, an added decoration was a line drawn from the corner of the eye to the temple. In the earliest times foot covering was seldom worn indoors.

But to be “Superintendent of the Chamber of Wigs and Head-dresses” could have been no sinecure. Wigs! Wigs! Wigs! We can imagine them in the room devoted to them, on shelves, in boxes, and on stands. Upon this department of his wardrobe the Egyptian spent much time and care. With head closely shaven, and frequently the chin also divested of all natural endowment, he had unlimited opportunity to add what he considered improvement of an artificial character. He wore a manufactured beard, caps of a striped material, and wigs made both of human hair and sheep’s wool. The wigs consisted of rows of little curls beginning at different points and cut round and square. The shorter covered the head or neck, and the longer lay on the shoulders; a wig in the Berlin museum shows both short curls and long. In other instances braids and plaits were preferred to curls. The peculiarity of the Egyptian head was a prominent back, and this doubtless had to be considered in the shape of the wig selected. The pages who served the king and queen in their private apartments often wore a crown of natural flowers.

The women appear usually to have worn the wigs over their own hair, which sometimes escaped below. It also hung down in two tresses on the breast, and the young princes wore a side lock before the ear, as did the youthful god Horus. So much pride did females take in their hair that an especially fine lock was sometimes cut off and buried with them.

It was all deemed an important subject. A certain Shapsesre of later time, superintendent at court, a wig-maker by profession, had four statues of himself made for his tomb, each with a different style of wig!

The king wore a sort of handkerchief, a cap, or a helmet. The white crown of Upper Egypt was a curious, high, white, conical cap; that of Lower Egypt was red, had a high, narrow back and a metal ornament bent obliquely forward. They were, after a time, worn together. The upreared uraeus or asp was the sign of royalty. The goddess Ra-nu was represented with the asp which was worn by the queen, with the addition of the vulture with drooping or outspread wings, the winged sum disk and other costly head-dresses.

A great stele found at the pyramid of Gizeh is dedicated to the memory of a princess who, after being a great favorite in the court of Seneferu and Khufu, was subsequently attached to the private house of Kafra, and her history seems to run strangely parallel with that of the queen—if she herself be not intended.